NEXT

There were some technical difficulties with the video of Marie’s testimony. Because of this, it took us longer to post than anticipated. But, at long last, it’s here! Enjoy!

Marie Chase Testimony from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Download mp3 of Marie’s testimony HERE.


My baptism a little over a year ago was a miracle.  I am the only survivor of a very troubled twin pregnancy.  My mom entered Georgetown Hospital in serious distress at the 20th week, expecting to stay for the remainder of her pregnancy.  Andrea, my identical twin, died within days, and I immediately experienced profound problems.  I had massive strokes while still in the womb as a result of her death, resulting in severe brain damage and other problems. 

Shortly after my birth almost 25 years ago, my parents were told by a team of specialists that it was very unlikely that I would ever be able to walk, and possibly would not have sight because my brain would not be able to process the information from my eyes.  The idea of having higher brain functions, such as language and speech, was utterly beyond any reasonable hope. 

Since my earliest days I’ve always been followed by special needs services, from the Willard Center of Fairfax County to the Child Find Program of the public schools.  It says in Isaiah 53:5, “By his stripes we are healed.”  Today, I stand here and say I know God has done a miracle in my life and His work is not finished.  An amazing evidence of God’s power and mercy is that I graduated from high school twenty years to the day my parents were given what seemed like a “death sentence” prognosis. Though I still have cerebral palsy and other medical issues (Who doesn’t have issues?), God has profoundly rescued and healed me.

My dad always said God has given me a foot in two worlds:  the disabled world and the normal world.  I have many wheelchair bound friends, but often it has been hard to make friends in the “normal” world.  Many people look down on or are wary of those with apparent disabilities, even in Christian circles.  I am grateful to be a member of a church that teaches the dignity of every person created by God, the immeasurable value of human life, and the sovereignty of God in giving gifts to His church.  Every one of us whom God brings into His church has specific gifts for the body of Christ. 

Growing up with feet in two worlds has opened my eyes to the need, and my heart to the desire, of a ministry for disabled children and young adults.  I hope to use my gifts for the Glory of God, especially as it relates to those with disabilities.

Like many kids who grew up in a Christian home, I don’t have a dramatic conversion story nor do I know exactly when I was converted.  I realize now that I was open to Christ, but I learned as I grew I needed a bigger understanding of salvation.  I didn’t just need to know bible verses; I needed forgiveness from God for my sins.  Romans 3:23 is clear that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  My understanding of sin and salvation will always have room to grow, but I know the Father has forgiven me because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

In High School, I wasn’t reading the bible everyday, even though I was encouraged to do so.  In part it was because I had trouble understanding much of it and it seemed a bit confusing and therefore boring.  My parents keep telling me that if I read my Bible more often, I would understand it better.  I just wanted a quick solution, like Bible Cliff Notes or something.  I really felt bad for not reading my Bible more often, especially when there were religious discussions with fellow students and I would not know how to back up my beliefs about God.  My lack of knowledge and understanding of the Bible also made me afraid to witness to unbelievers, even my best friend when she asked me questions.  I knew I wanted to be better able to share the gospel with her and other people.

Because of my background much of my life has been focused on the healing work of God.  But has been helping me in recent years, God to better understand Christ’s redeeming work.  I have physical disabilities, but everyone has the disability of sin.  The truth is that our sins separate us from God.  Salvation requires each of us to turn from our sins and to put our faith, hope and trust in Jesus Christ, who died on the Cross to pay the price for our sin.

In 2005 at the New Attitude Conference (now known as Next), God made realize how slow I am to respond to Him and how I often fail to be responsible in daily life.  He made me aware of putting other things ahead of Him.  His conviction resulted in my reading and loving the bible more.  I am so thankful that God has given me grace in this area, though I continue to struggle with this spiritual discipline.

One passage that has helped me to understand His kindness and redeeming work is 2 Corinthians 6:2.  “For God says, ‘at just the right time, I heard you.  On the day of salvation, I helped you.  Indeed, God is ready to help you right now.  Today is the day of salvation.’”  God’s word is true; He is both willing and able to have this day be your day of salvation. 
I consider Jeremiah 29:11 to be my life verse.  “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper and not harm you, to give you a future and a hope.”

I thank God everyday for the gift of life.  I marvel that He created me, oversaw the miracle of my birth and development, and drew me to Himself—and now allows me to stand on this stage and tell you all the glorious things He has done in my life.

Here’s something fun for you to enjoy. This song was recorded at the Next 2009 conference. This worship set was led by Bob Kauflin and Reilly.

Jesus, Thank You from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

As the blog slows down for the summer, there is a group of people we would like to thank. Simply thanking them just doesn’t seem adequate. Since November of 2009, our Next Bloggers have been faithfully writing about the Next conference, encouraging you, and pointing you to the Savior. They have provided you with many laughs and some very helpful tips. If their posts have blessed you, please take a minute to post a comment. We would love to hear how God has used these 10 people in your life!

Thanks, team! Y’all have been so much fun! Great job!

Erin Hill Testimony from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Download mp3 of Erin’s testimony HERE.

I was raised in a loving home by Christian parents and blessed with grandparents and great-grandparents who all placed their hope in Jesus Christ. From the time I was in my mother’s womb until the age of 23, I attended a church in central Pennsylvania where I was taught the word of God. I considered myself to be a very strong follower of Christ.

Growing up in a church environment that put women at the forefront in ministry and loosely defined women’s role in the home, I had my heart set on running the show. Even though I didn’t know “how” to sing at the age of 13, I was asked to sing in the youth band at church. Shortly thereafter, when I realized I had basic singing skill, I became the worship leader for the youth team.

I received little, if any, guidance on how to lead a team. I learned through simple trial and error. I received lots of encouragement about my singing ability, but never strong biblical teaching or counsel concerning the role of a leader. For five years I led worship and I was told that I was doing a great job and that I had the gift of leadership; this did nothing but satisfy my desires to feel powerful, loved, and respected.

After I graduated from high school, I received a call from our Senior Pastor asking if I would consider joining the church staff as worship director. Mind you, I still had never received practical or biblical training as to what worship truly meant, or how to lead a team with godly wisdom. I remember feeling pressure, since I was only 18 and knew I’d be in charge of adults twice my age. After praying and consulting my family for guidance, I decided to take the position. I continued in the job for four and a half years, until my husband and I moved to Maryland in February of 2008. That’s when we came to Covenant Life Church and everything changed.

From the first day we visited the church, we were drawn to worship the Lord through singing and the preached Word. Our eyes were being opened to understand why Christ came and what he accomplished. We were experiencing the true freedom that comes through sound doctrine. When meeting couples at Covenant Life we saw how husbands loved their wives as Christ loves the church, and in turn how wives were submitting to their husbands out of reverence for Christ. This was very new to us! This grace of humility within marriage pointed us to Christ and his selfless sacrifice for us. We found ourselves becoming more aware of our constant need for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

As we went through the church’s membership classes on Sundays I began to realize that the Bible’s teaching about women was at odds with what I was used to. The more I learned from Scripture about the role of women in the church and the home, the more my pride began to surface, and it became evident that the dreams I had when I was younger were not filled with humility and a desire to glorify God. Sadly, all I seemed to care about was my gifting and my glory. I even considered not pursuing membership because of my pride.

Through the kindness of the Lord, my husband’s patience, and wise counsel from people like Ken Boer, Erik and Jerusha Sheffer, Bob and Julie Kauflin, and many other humble servants at Covenant Life Church, I began to see the beauty of God’s design. The Lord began to open my eyes to see that it’s not through my gifting that he is glorified, but through being a humble worshipper and servant. Even though I am still learning how to function as a woman in the church and as a wife at home, the Lord continues to reveal to me His goodness, and has given me new opportunities to serve Him. Though I am un-deserving, he has set my feet on a firm foundation and started a work in my life that I know he will bring to completion.

Ian Marshall Testimony from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Download mp3 of Ian’s testimony HERE.

My name is Ian Marshall. I am 23 years old. I grew up in Gaithersburg, Md., in a Christian family, but I myself was not a Christian.

I believed in baseball. I loved it more than anything, and I would often miss church and youth meetings for games and practices. In high school I didn’t have sex, smoke weed or party, only because I didn’t want anything to get in the way of me making it pro some day. Other than that I had no reason for steering clear of those things.

I was drafted out of high school in the 14th round by the New York Mets, but I declined and decided to go play for the University of Richmond. In my mind I was going to strike out everyone in college, get drafted again, and then be a millionaire—but God had other plans.

Thankfully, He started taking away everything in my life that I put before Him. I had elbow surgery my freshman year, then another elbow surgery my sophomore year. Since I had no foundation in Christ, when the thing I valued above everything was no longer an option, I turned to the world to remedy my sense of worthlessness. By junior year the whole not drinking, not getting with girls, not smoking weed and being motivated thing went out the window. I had zero convictions about those things.

I had parties at my on-campus apartment all the time. Pretty much every Friday after practice my team would ask me what time they should come over. I was the guy on the team that would organize the parties, call the girls—I mean I wasn’t just into partying—I made sure others were partying hard along with me. After I had to miss my junior season for another injury, I was so depressed that I thought about going to a psychological service on campus. I felt like I had nobody to talk to, I didn’t like a lot of my teammates, I hated my coaches, and I wanted to transfer.

The summer after junior year I visited my cousin in San Diego. His love for God is contagious, and while I was there, I asked God to give me a fire for the Lord like his.

Back at school two weeks later, I was playing ping-pong with a guy on the football team, and we must have played 20 games. It got boring playing the same person, so I went upstairs to my team’s study hall to recruit some more players. When I walked out of their classroom, there was this big guy I didn’t know named Mickey—the new football team chaplain. He walked right up to me with this big smile and was like, “Hey, what’s your name? What are you doing?”  I said, “I’m Ian. I was gonna go play some ping-pong. You wanna play?

“How about this?” he said. How about you come to FCA here in 10 minutes, and then afterwards I’ll go whip your butt in some ping pong.”

When he mentioned FCA, God put this desire in my heart that made me not want to be anywhere else in the world but in that meeting. My teammates came out right when study hall ended and were just like, “Alright, lets go play.” I said, “No thanks, guys, I’m going to go to this FCA meeting here in a couple minutes.” One kid laughed and was like, “Haha, your not even moral dude … you’re not going to FCA.” That really hit me hard, because I knew he was right. I really didn’t even have morals.

So about 15 minutes into the meeting a bunch of my teammates were at the door while Mickey was giving a brief sermon, and they were whispering to me, trying to get me to leave. Mickey, this guy I just met, in a room full of people I didn’t know, stopped everything and said, “Hey, Ian, you want to make a bet? I bet one day you will be giving your testimony and telling people about this night and about how your teammates were trying to get you to leave FCA.” He was right.

0At the end of his sermon, he invited anybody who wanted to know God to say a prayer along with him, which I did. And I meant it.

Afterwards, Mickey hooked me up with a Christian guy on the basketball team named Dave and told us to get together once a week and just read the Bible together for an hour. That night Dave said, “Hey man if you’re serious about giving your life to Christ, the devil will be angry that you’re not on his team anymore. He’s going to tempt you so much these next couple days—real hard—just to get you back on his team.”  At the time I didn’t pay much attention to his warning.

After FCA Mickey and I went downstairs, he whipped my butt in ping-pong like he promised, and I left at about 12:30 a.m. Right when I left the building—I kid you not—my phone started blowing up with texts and phone calls from a couple different girls, one I barely knew but wanted to, and another who months earlier wanted nothing to do with me, but now all the sudden wanted me to meet up with her. Because Dave had prepared me for these temptations, I resisted. About an hour later my friend calls me to pick him up from a bar, so I drove to downtown Richmond. He was with these two girls. I dropped them all off, and this girl I didn’t even know was like, “Hey, you want to come in?” I said “No thanks,” and my teammate was like, “What have you done with my friend?”

The next day was Friday, and my teammates said, “Hey, what time should we be over?” I was just like, “Yeah, I’m not gonna have a party tonight. I’m not going to be doing that stuff anymore.” They all laughed because I said it so straight-faced, and they thought I was joking.

Later that day I was alone in the locker room with my teammate, Mike, my closest friend on the team. He said, “Hey man, what’s gotten into you? Why aren’t you partying tonight?” I thought for a second, “If I tell him, he’s going to think I’m weird.” But then God made it clear to me that I had something he needed, and that I need to be bold and confident when I tell others about Jesus. I told him what happened the night before and how I had believed Christ for my salvation and how free I felt. He started opening up about how his mom had died of cancer and used to take him to Bible studies. After we left the locker room, he prayed to know Christ right there in the parking lot. Two other teammates did the same soon thereafter.

That was just the beginning. I could stay up here for a long while telling you about how lives have been changed for Christ on Richmond’s campus. Jesus took the University of Richmond by storm. One night Dave and I decided we were going to invite anybody and everybody to FCA. It started out with about 15 people and blew up to about 80 in just a few weeks. There was no special formula. We just read the Bible and played worship songs on YouTube for worship.

Since I became a Christian, God has given me countless opportunities to share my faith with others on and off the baseball field. It wasn’t until I put God first that God allowed baseball back into my life. He completely healed my arm. One day after I pitched, my coach came up to me in the corner of the field and said, “Hey Ian … I don’t know what it is … I know you have been getting involved with FCA and this Jesus thing … but whatever it is you need to keep it up because I have never seen you pitch like that.”

Teammates that I used to have terrible relationships with are now my very close friends. Some who are unbelievers have come up to me at parties and asked me to pray for them or sometimes their family members—right there in the middle of a party. Seriously, picture it—we would just bow our heads and pray in the middle of a chaotic party. Just last Saturday after my final college game, my teammate—who specifically told me he does not want to hear anything more about Jesus—came up to me in a bar crying his eyes out and sharing really personal stuff with me about his girlfriend, his father and his family, and I laid a hand on him, and we prayed right there over the noise of the karaoke.

Jesus has flipped my life right side up and inside out. He has shown so much grace to me and given me a peace, purpose and a desire to walk in what he has planned for me. If you watch the draft on June 8th, I will probably be drafted again at some point. This time around I know that if baseball doesn’t work out, God’s plans for my life are better than mine. Thank you.

Casey Frazier Testimony from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Download mp3 of Casey’s testimony HERE.

Hi, my name is Casey Frazier.

I grew up in Northern Virginia.  I am the youngest of eight children, raised in a Christian home by two loving parents.  I became a Christian at 8 years old, and like a lot of children that age, the reason was simple: I didn’t want to end up in hell. I think my faith was real, even at that young age, but I followed my selfish desires and made a practice of ignoring God. I believed in Him, but as funny as it sounds, I really didn’t trust that He would be enough to make me happy or satisfied.  I spent the next twenty years trying to make myself happy, always falling short.

Fast forward to this year:  I find myself in a new town, newly single, living alone for the first time, and without the “precious” lifelines of TV or the Internet.  Needless to say, I had a lot of extra time on my hands.  So on February 8th I started reading the Bible with the intent of completing it in a year’s time. My logic was simply that I had never tried it before, and I knew I might not have an opportunity like this again.

Why had I never done it before?  Selfishness.  And pride.  I was content in reading the Bible in bite size pieces that fit into my opinions.  I didn’t want a God that would challenge my own pursuit of happiness and confront the sin in my life. My focus in Bible reading was finding things that would justify me and provide me with a defensible position when I had dialogue with other believers.

So, back to the present:

The reading plan was simple:  Every day I would first pray, acknowledging God’s presence in the reading of His Word, and then read four chapters, beginning with the first chapters of Genesis, Ezra, Matthew and Acts. I promised myself that no matter how I felt, or what was happening on any given day, I would continue to read.  Baby steps.  The end result was delightful and a gift from God—I finished in three months and felt greatly blessed!

I want to share with you some of the blessings that came from that experience:

1. I found a genuine hunger for the Word:  When I made reading the priority, four chapters quickly became five, and then 10, and then 40.  I found that the more I read, the more I wanted to keep on reading.  Soon, in the back of my mind, wherever I was, I was thinking about when I would have another chance to read Scripture.
2. Sometimes you really have to drop the expectations, and just read:  The Bible is perfect, so your reading of it doesn’t have to be.  Sometimes you have to put away the commentary, the journal and the study guide and just read. I found that constant reading trumped focused reading because I had spent so much of my life using the Bible to justify myself, rather than humbling myself before God and his Word. Constant reading dislodged me from my old sinful patterns, took the focus off me, and put it back on God.
3. God’s Word doesn’t leave room for sin:  There is no greater form of accountability than God’s Word.  Soon, on a daily basis, long-term patterns of sin and struggle in my life were forced to compete with the clarity of God’s truth and promises. I found that the more I read, the more sin lost its luster.
4. Fellowship became deeper and more consistent:  I was amazed at how often a passage of Scripture I had never read would have instant application to a particular situation or relationship.  The more I applied God’s truths to the relationships in my life, the more I felt God pulling me into those relationships.  It seems a little counterintuitive that more time in solitude would build community, but spending time in God’s Word is a huge investment in the people in your life.
 

So I know what I’m telling you doesn’t seem spectacular, but it really is.  Those three months brought a huge amount of spiritual growth, and the growth was directly tied to God’s Word at work in my life.  So I want to encourage others, believers and non-believers alike, to read God’s Word and to read it often.  God’s Word is really God’s Word, and it has the power to change you.

Over the next couple of days, I will be posting the testimonies that were shared during the 2010 conference. We are so grateful to these individuals for sharing at the conference and allowing us to post their testimonies on the blog. We hope you are encouraged. Enjoy!

Heather Evans Testimony from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Download mp3 of Heather’s testimony HERE.

I grew up in a Christian home where my parents did everything they could to ensure that I had a deep love for Christ. Yet, throughout my childhood, church was merely an excuse to see my friends and an escape from realities like being bullied at school and molested by a neighbor. During my teen years, church became just another part of life where I went through the motions.

When I was 13 there were some serious moral failings in the leadership of the church we attended. I began to see the church as a cult, and grew bitter. But I still needed the approval of my friends and family, so I buried my feelings and continued to “do” church.

Looking back, I can see that I was consumed by a sinful desire for love and approval from others. I never took time to evaluate the state of my heart, but instead focused on other people’s view of me. In my mind I was a Christian, but I was merely following the crowd. I knew what to say to impress people and never dared to ask any questions about God in fear that people would look down on me.

During and after my senior year in high school, there were more troubling issues in the leadership of our church, and I gave up attending church altogether.

I found friends who introduced me to the ways of the world in a big way. During this time I broke my back, developed an eating disorder, had two friends die in tragic accidents, and walked my best friend though the trials of having cancer. Every time I was tested, the true state of my heart was revealed. Not once did I look to God or even believe that he could help me. I looked ok on the outside, but on the inside everything was crashing down. I was no longer finding satisfaction in faking my way though life.

By age 19, I realized that I had been lying to myself and to everyone else about who I was. I became aware that I was not really a Christian. I stopped seeking the approval of my Christian friends. I stopped caring about what people in the church thought. I got a job serving and bartending, and soon fell in love with the party life. I feared the rejection of my new friends and was afraid to say no to what they were involved in.

Eventually, I became willing to do almost anything, and as a result, I cannot remember significant portions of this period. But in it all, God was still working. God started putting people in my life to turn me back to him. A family friend got in touch and asked me to go with their daughter to the NEXT conference. I was hesitant to say yes, but feeling the need for a little vacation and a few days to sober up, I agreed to go.

The months leading up to the conference were an all time low. Even my party friends were concerned about how much I was willing to compromise. One of my “normal nights out” turned ugly when I was slipped some drugs and dragged outside to a back alley. That night is a complete blank to me except for one moment where I clearly know God intervened. While my assailant tried to get me into a cab, I screamed out to some nearby security guards who came to my rescue and got me safely back to my friends.

Two weeks later I found myself at the NEXT conference, completely broken. Julie Rawlings came up to me and asked if she could “borrow” me. She told me that she had met me a few years before and had been praying for me. She spoke God’s Word to me and explained that I needed a Savior. After lots of tears and lots of words that I believe were straight from God, I repented and believed Jesus for my salvation.

When I returned to Vancouver, God brought another crisis to finally break through my patterns of sin. After a night that ended with me being brought to a man’s house against my will and sexually assaulted, I gave up the party life for good. God had to teach me that it isn’t ok to put yourself in situations where you are surrounded by temptation and sin. Even if you are not actively participating in the sinful activity, you are saying to others that this is the lifestyle you prefer. God took that awful situation and used it to grow me and remind me how desperate I am for a Savior.

My life in Christ is completely new; everything has changed. I am no longer bitter towards the church, and I now see my need to completely rely on Jesus for everything. When temptation comes I have a great support system through God’s Word, Christian friends, my church, and my pastor. God is working in my heart to reveal the extreme harm that fearing men more than God can cause and how it blinds us from seeing the true state of our hearts. When I look at Jesus’ work on the cross, and what he has saved me from, I am in complete awe of his love for me.

Many people have asked for the lyrics from the spontaneous songs that Bob Kauflin shared during the 2010 conference. Bob has posted them on his blog. I have included the links below.

Song for Those Battling the Effects of Sin
Song for Those with Disabilities

One of the things I enjoy about the Next conference is the walk-in music that is played before the sessions begin. Every year I look forward to hearing the mix that is as random as it is fun. For those of you that are wondering, here is the list of songs that was played during the 2010 conference. Enjoy!

Next 2010 playlist:

1. Flim (LP Version) – Aphex Twin (Come to Daddy)
2. Avril 14th – Aphex Twin (Drukqs)
3. Slip – Autechre (Amber)
4. Amo Bishop Roden – Boards of Canada (In a Beautiful Place Out In the Country – EP)
5. Wholly Yours – David Crowder Band (A Collision)
6. You Are My Joy – David Crowder Band (A Collision)
7. The Glory of It All – David Crowder Band (Passion: God of This City)
8. Changeling/Transmission 1 – DJ Shadow (Entroducing…)
9. King Of Peace – Generation Letter
10. The Work – I Am Robot and Proud (The Electricity In Your House Wants to Sing)
11. Save Me – JJ Heller (Painted Red)
12. Painted Red – JJ Heller (Painted Red)
13. Your Love Is Strong – Jon Foreman (Spring – EP)
14. Pure Light – Matt Redman (Facedown)
15. I Know You Are But What Am I? – Mogwai (Happy Songs for Happy People)
16. The Sun Smells Too Loud – Mogwai (The Hawk Is Howling)
17. Noticed – Mutemath (Mutemath)
18. Chaos – Mutemath (Mutemath)
19. Plan B – Mutemath (Mutemath)
20. All I Have Is Christ – Na Band (Next2009 Live)
21. Something Beautiful – Needtobreathe (The Outsiders)
22. I Believe In Your Victory – This Will Destroy You (Young Mountain)
23. Grandfather Clock – This Will Destroy You (Young Mountain)
24. Hasty Boom Alert – U-Ziq (Lunatic Harness)
25. Asleep At the Wheel – Working for a Nuclear Free City (Businessmen & Ghosts)
26. Crime - Zelos

This video was played during the Saturday afternoon session at Next 2010. For more information on the video, click HERE.

The last day of the Next 2010 conference…

To view more pictures from the conference, visit our Flickr page.

Pictures from Sunday at the Next 2010 conference. And, yes, you guessed it…they’re not in any sort of time line or order.

Thank you for your feedback and patience regarding the Next 2010 mp3 downloads. We were testing out a new server and it was not able to handle your enthusiastic response. Because of this, we have switched to a different server. The Resource page has been updated. Enjoy the messages!

Pictures from day 2 of the Next 2010 conference (again in no apparent order)...

Check out the Application Guide for the 2010 Conference.

In it you’ll find:

1) Application Questions
Stop and consider how each message applies to your life. Use these on your own or with a small group.

2) Next Steps
Need some ideas for how to dig deeper into a certain topic or use truth from the conference to impact your church and friends? We’ve thought of some next steps you can take for each message.

3) Justin Taylor’s Recommended Reading
We asked our friend Justin Taylor if he would be willing to recommend some books for further reading on each topic addressed at the conference. (You know who he is, he runs a little blog called Between Two Worlds) He shares his top picks for further exploring the doctrine of scripture or doctrine of God or eschatology, etc.

Check out the guide

Dig deep. Build on the rock. Take truth back into your daily life.